President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed Republic Act 9346 yesterday and abolished the death penalty.

A tired-looking Arroyo signed the measure in front of an audience composed of senators, congressmen, European diplomats, religious organizations, and non- government groups, less than an hour after leaving St. Luke's Medical Center in Quezon City.

She had been confined at the hospital since Thursday night for acute infectious diarrhea.

"We have taken a strong hand against the threats to the law and the Republic, but at the same time we yield to the high moral imperatives dictated by God to walk away from capital punishment," Arroyo said in a speech after the ceremony.

"We shall continue to devote the increasing weight of our resources to the prevention and control of serious crimes, rather than take the lives of those who commit them," she said.

The President's speech was not delivered during the formal signing ceremony because her speech writers had to add her condemnation of Friday's bombing in Maguindanao province, which killed six people and wounded 10 others.

Taking note of the Maguindanao incident, believed to have targeted Governor Andal Ampatuan, Arroyo vowed not to relent in battling terrorists and criminals.

The President also allayed fears of anti-crime groups that the abolition of the death penalty would open the floodgates to heinous crimes, as she called on "the entire criminal justice system, law enforcers, prosecutors, jailers, judges and whole community to take stock of the responsibility of sharpening law and justice for all."

Arroyo confirmed she intended to inform Pope Benedict XVI about the death penalty's abolition when she meets with him in the Vatican during a European visit that begins Sunday.

"When I meet the Holy Father soon in the Vatican, I shall tell him that we have acted in the name of life for a world of peace and harmony," she said.

Anti-crime crusaders have criticized the death penalty's abolition and accused the President, a devout Catholic, of rushing its approval to please the pope.

Arroyo thanked Congress, for crossing party lines and acting speedily on the measure, and the Catholic Church for supporting her move.

The Vatican's envoy to Manila, Papal nuncio Archbishop Fernando Filoni, said Saturday was "a very important day because [the] death penalty is abolished" as he congratulated Arroyo and legislators who approved the measure.

"This could be another very important nice step to go on in showing that the culture of life is very alive and important in this country," Filoni said. "We cannot speak about human rights when [the] death penalty is imposed."

Under RA 9346, the penalties of life imprisonment and reclusion perpetua replace the death penalty.
Persons convicted of offenses punishable by reclusion perpetua, or whose sentences will be reduced to reclusion perpetua, shall not be eligible for parole under Republic Act 4013, or the Indeterminate Sentence Law.

An estimated 1,200 death row inmates - including at least 11 al-Qaeda-linked militants - will benefit from the death penalty's abolition.

Although the 1987 Constitution abolished the death penalty, Congress restored capital punishment in late 1993 for heinous crimes such as murder, child rape and kidnapping.

Seven people have been executed between 1999 and 2000 before a government moratorium that was prompted mostly by pressure from the dominant Roman Catholic Church, the European Union and human rights groups.

Presidential Chief of Staff Michael Defensor said they had canceled all the President's six "short working meetings" to allow her to rest.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told reporters she was "taking it easy" and "making preparations" for her departure for official visits to Italy, Vatican City and Spain.

She is scheduled to meet separately with Pope Benedict XVI and Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano before traveling on to Spain, where she will hold talks with King Juan Carlos I and President Jose Luis Gonzalez Zapatero.